Amid ongoing violent confrontations between police and protesters in Ferguson, Missouri, racist comments attributed to the wife of Ferguson police chief Thomas Jackson are circulating via social media -- comments that were not, in fact, made by Mrs. Jackson.

This is the quote:

They are feral and violent. They murder each other. They murder their unborn babies. They murder white people. They hate police officers and murder some of them, even black ones. They destroy neighbors and entire cities with garbage and drugs. They live their lives off the hard-earned tax dollars of other Americans. Yet somehow they are the victims. What insanity is that?

Description: Viral quote / Image
Circulating since: Aug. 2014
Status: Misattributed (see details below)

A screen capture of the Facebook page on which the comments allegedly first appeared seems to show they were posted by a St. Petersburg, Florida resident named Catherine Nardi, not by Chief Jackson's wife (whose full name is Patricia Jackson). The fact-checking website PolitiFact.com attempted to contact both Nardi and Jackson for clarification, without success.

PolitiFact.com writer Aaron Sharockman traced the original tweet attributing the quote to the police chief's wife to a Twitter account associated with the hacktivist group Anonymous, which had previously launched a cyber-attack against the city of Ferguson's website on August 11, threatening to take it offline if protesters were abused by police, according to a UPI report.

Protesters took to the streets of the St. Louis suburb after the fatal police shooting of an unarmed black teenager named Michael Brown on August 9, 2014. Several violent confrontations occurred in the days that followed, accompanied by accusations that excessive force was used by Ferguson police officers.

Related: Viral image of cop macing child wasn't taken in Ferguson

A viral image purportedly showing a Ferguson police officer spraying mace or pepper spray into the eyes of a small child was not taken in Ferguson, as alleged. It's a press photo shot in Rio de Janeiro in 2011.

Sources and further reading:

Ferguson Police Chief's Wife Calls African-Americans 'Feral' in Facebook Post, Group Claims
PolitiFact.com, 13 August 2014

Anonymous 'Hacktivists' Get into City of Ferguson's Websites Sunday Night
UPI, 11 August 2014

What We Know About Michael Brown's Shooting
CNN, 14 August 2014

Last updated 08/14/14